German-American Discourse on Politics and Culture

July 30, 2014

For those of you who have already binged on the complete episodes of Breaking Bad and are looking for something to fill the void, I can recommend Generation War - which is the English title of the German mini-series Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter("Our Mothers, Our Fathers"). Generation War,comprised of three episodes of 90 minutes each, just became available on Netflix Instant Play. The series was a huge hit on German television, attracting more than 7 million viewers each night - phenomenal numbers for the German market.

Generation War is the saga of five friends in Berlin who meet for one last farewell celebration on the eve of the outbreak of war in 1941. We follow their respective journeys over the next five years, as their youthful idealism and optimism turns into despair and desolation. From the title, it is apparent that these five are meant to represent the fate of an entire generation. None of the characters is a member of the Nazi party, although they all naively believe (at first) in the propaganda put out by the party. One of the five is a Jew who narrowly escapes the Auschwitz death camp. There are some unbelievable and absurd plot twists as Generation War struggles to keep all five of the principal characters in view.

The series has been roundly criticized for being bad history, but I have to say that Generation War is never dull and for the most part is highly entertaining. The acting is superb, and we grow to care deeply about each of the five, even as they become morally compromised in their efforts to survive a terrible war. The production is also of very high quality.

American critics have sometimes called Generation War Germany's Band of Brothers, the 2001 HBO series that follow one American combat unit in World War II. But Band of Brothers often focused on combat heroics. There is nothing heroic in the war scenes in Generation War - all superbly done. They are visions of unmitigated- and, ultimately, meaningless - horror.

('While the German Left has a great deal of understanding for Russia, it castigates every misstep by Israel in the strongest of terms. Why is that?")

She argues that the German Left has a sentimental attachment to Russia, harkening back to the old Soviet Union. The fact that Russia today is a right-wing kleptocracy, with no freedom of the press, held together (tenuously) by a crude ethnic nationalistic fervor apparently has little impact on left-wing pro-Putin sentiments:

(For the Left the Soviet Union was always something of a secret source of hope against the evil US imperialism, and at the end of the cold war it lost the arms race with the Americans. Russia had to stand by powerless while the US intervened in the Balkans and later in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Left shared its criticisms of those misadventures.)

(In their minds Israel is paired with the US. In this perspective, the tiny country serves as the extended arm of the super-power in the region - and therefore represents an imperialist policy which exerts its interests to the detriment of the weaker group. Critique of Israel is in large measure pure unreflected anti-Americanism. The thinking of the left is split into strong and weak, and it is absolutely necessary to be on the side of the weak, then they are "the good guys"...)

Yes, anti-Americanism is at the heart of the "Putinization" and anti-Semitism of the Left. It is an automatic reflex. I'm reminded of an experience I had when the first Gulf War broke out in January 1991 and I happened to be in Hamburg. I was confronted by a demonstrator carrying a sign "Stoppt den US-Imperialismus!" I asked the young demonstrator if he had also protested when Saddam Hussein brutally invaded Kuwait the previous August. His answer?

BERLIN (AP) — The leader of Germany's Jewish community says he is shocked by an "explosion of evil and violent hatred of Jews" shown by protesters at pro-Gaza demonstrations across the country The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, said Monday that "we would have never in our lives have expected that anti-Semitic slogans of the worst and most primitive kind could be chanted on Germany's streets."

Since the outbreak of violence in Israel and Gaza, there have been demonstrations both for and against Israel in Germany. During some of those protests, pro-Gaza protesters have chanted "gas the Jews" and other anti-Semitic slogans.

At a pro-Gaza protest in Berlin last week, an Israeli tourist was verbally attacked and had to be protected by police.

Who are these demonstrators, protesting against Israel's actions in Gaza? For the most part, it appears to be an unholy alliance of Islamists, Neo-Nazis, and Leftists. The outbreak of violence in Israel and Gaza has been a convenient excuse to allow for the latent anti-Semitism to explode in the open:

(The slogans that we can hear in German streets today indicate a new dimension of anti-Semitic hate. The latent anti-Semitism (researchers estimate 20 to 25% of the German population is anti-Semitic) has broken into the open in a minority, but not to such an extreme perhaps in the history of the Federal Republic.)

How ironic that neo-Nazis are coming together with Muslim extremists to make common cause. Usually, the NPD describes the Muslims in Germany as an alien bacillus, infecting the pure German Volk. But when it comes to vocally hating Jews, Muslims and neo-Nazis are bosom-buddies.

And the leftist pro-Gaza demonstrators? For two years Bashar al-Assad has been slaughtering tens of thousands of Arab citizens of Syria and not one protest from Die LINKE or other left-wing group. Why the solidarity with Palestine but indifference to Syria? Sybille Berg made this observation in her recent column in Der Spiegel:

July 19, 2014

Malaysian Airlines Flight LH17 crashed in the eastern Ukraine, The evidence mounts that it was brought down by a Russian-made missile launched by Russian separatists in a region under their control, possibly with the support of the Russian military. You would think that this development would demoralize the legions of Putin-Verehrer ("Putin admirers") in Germany. You would be wrong, however.

The mainstream press outlets in Germany have done a good job on reporting the facts as they emerge. But many commenters in the reader forums and many bloggers have latched on to wild conspiracy theories - usually claiming that the event was somehow orchestrated by the United States. Why? To force the EU into accepting tougher sanctions against Russia and/or to start a war ("die Amerikaner sind imperialistische Kriegshetzer")/

(you can exclude the Russians without reservation, they don't have any reason to do this and they know that they would be held responsible. The Ukrainian army and their Polish and American militia supporters have the capability and the motive.)

(Of course it was Putin. Of course the USA is innocent, even though the destablized the Ukraine with $5 billion and financed the putsch - of course it couldn't be them. That evil, evil Putin held a democratic eleciton in Crimea, which was always Russian - how could he do such a thing? The US understands democracy as dropping bombs and killing people.

If a sack of rice falls over tomorrow in China it is probably Putin's fault. We should be grateful to Putin, without him there would be World War III. He has been patient and up to now not giving in to the provocations of the USA/NATO/EU. Because of this 90% of Germans stand behind Putin and Russia.)

There are thousands of similar comments I could quote from Welt, Spiegel, SZ, Zeit, etc. Some of the blogs are equally hysterical in blaming the US for the tragedy. This comment on the left-wing blog "Spiegelfechter" compares the US to the Third Reich:

(Who benefits? The answer is crystal clear: the USA. The completely bankrupt debtor empire needs a war to distract from its precarious situaiton and wipe outits debts. That is not proof - but a plausible suspicion. The recent disappearance of a Malaysian flight and the appearance of wreckage and strewn bodies on "separatist soil" works in favor of the war interests of the US. I smells like a provocation and a False-Flag attack that has been planned for a long time. With 80 children and 20 Americans (sic!) on board the plane was perfectly chosen in order to draw the US and global opinion into the conflict.)

(By the way, the same publication accused the US of shooting down Malaysian Airline Flight MH370 during a missile test launch that went astray.)

(Barack Obama, at onetime the hope for the world, has turned more and more into a monster of horror for the entire world. While the Bush presidencies were awful, he has now surpassed them. On June 4 he stood before a US fighter jet on Polish terrority and warns Russia against military intervention against western nation, for which there are zero indications.)

Are these minority views in Germany? Yes, but a vocal minority which each day grows louder.

In the next days and weeks, as further evidence is presented to the world concerning Russia's involvement in the MH17 tragedy, these folks will simply see this as further proof that the United States brought down the plane.

July 11, 2014

Things have gone from bad to worse in German - US relations with the discovery that two low-level German officials were spying on behalf of the CIA. It is naive to think that nations do not spy on each other, but in this case the spies were caught and it came after an acrimonious year of leaks by Edward Snowden. To make matters worse, the information passed along by the spies was of little or now value.

The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - normally favorably disposed to the US - is infuriated by this latest scandal:

("The West's enemies are the only ones who will be delighted over a spat between Germany and the US. Because it means quarrelling and paralysis between two close allies who - despite all the differences of opinion and mentality - share similar or even identical goals and interests in many areas. And who always claim that their alliance, their 'friendship', is based on a stable foundation of shared values and beliefs. But doubts about that are growing on both sides of the Atlantic, and that is the real explosive factor in this affair.)

I am glad that the author (Berthold Kohler) wrote about "doubts growing on both sides of the Atlantic." For there are real doubts about Germany's commitment to the West, We see columnists for Germany's leading news magazine openly calling for appeasement with Russia. We see one former chancellor expressing sympathy with Putin for Russia's aggression in the Crimea, which another former chancellor travels to St. Petersburg to celebrate Vladimir Putin's birthday even as Russian troops are invading a sovereign European nation. We see Germany's largest opposition party in the Bundestag condemn Nato and the United States and pledge allegiance to Putin's ethnic nationalist policies.

So yes, the spying scandal is another self-inflicted wound by the United States. But there is a growing uneasiness with som internal trends in Germany.

July 05, 2014

Norbert Müller, a representative of Die Linke (Left Party) in the Bundestag, calls Joachim Gauck a "repulsive warmonger" on his Facebook page ("widerlichen Kriegshetzer"). Müller's colleague in the Left Party, Inge Höger, repeats the charge on her Web Site. What was it that the President could have said to provoke such a reaction?

(In the past it was understandable that despite Germany's size and economic power it would react with restraint on the international stage. I understand that. But Germany today is a solid and reliable democracy. It stands on the side of the oppressed. It fights for human rights. And in this struggle for human rights or the survival of innocents it is sometimes necessary to take up arms.)

Germany, as a member of NATO, is bound by Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, which states that an attack on one member of NATO is an attack on the entire alliance. So, in a sense, Gauck was simply pointing out Germany's obligation as a member of NATO.

It is true that the Left Party is virulently pro-Putin and anti-NATO. Members of Die LINKE cheered as Putin annexed Crimea, and protested when Ukraine defended itself against pro-Russian separatists in the eastern region of the country. Never in a million years would members of the Left Party defend NATO members Estonia or Lithuania- much less Poland - if Putin decided to "come to the assistance" of the ethnic Russians in those countries. Obediance to Moscow is in the party's DNA, going back to its roots in the former East Germany (back then, however, it was not so reflexively pacifist: it had no problem in using military force against its own citizens).

Gauck grew up in Soviet-occupied East Germany (DDR) and his father survived Stalin's GULAG. So he might have a different perpective on Russia.

In the end, if push came to shove and Germany was under threat from Russian troops or ISIS bombs, Gauck's pacifist critics know (but never openly admit) that the "Great Imperialist Satan" - the United States- would defend it.